ST. GEORGE — Lingering clouds of controversy left in the wake of the St. George City manager’s recent resignation and the alleged reasons for it hung over a public comment period held Thursday during a City Council meeting.
The council chambers at the city offices were packed to the point of standing room only Thursday evening as over 20 people approached the council one after another with issues they felt needed to be heard.
The majority of the comments were divided between members and supporters of the LGBTQ-plus community who supported the HBO-sponsored “We’re Here” drag show that was staged in early June and those who opposed it and called for stronger measures against such programs taking place in the open in name of protecting children.
Others called on the council to declare St. George a sanctuary city for the unborn and the 2nd Amendment.
Actions taken by the City Council concerning the drag show have led one side to accuse members of the council of being homophobic and transphobic. On the other hand, some St. George residents want to see the city crack down on the possibility of any drag shows or similar displays taking place in public areas regularly accessed by families with young children.
‘We’re not going away’
Emotions ran high for some members of the area’s LGBTQ-plus community as they said they felt hated and abandoned by the City Council due to efforts to block the “We’re Here” drag show from being held in the St. George Town Square over the summer. They also claimed the homophobia they accused the council of had emboldened local bigots to be more forceful and threatening in their own hatred for the LGBTQ-plus community.
“We do not feel safe,” said Sarah Ostler, a 19-year-old Utah Tech University student who is the president of an LGBTQ-plus association at the university. “I’ve had people come crying, showing us the articles that our City Council doesn’t support us. Our City Council doesn’t love us.”
Articles referenced by Ostler and others included those published by the Salt Lake Tribune that broke the news of the former city manager allegedly being pushed out of his position due to approving the drag show. Another Tribune article covered a meeting of the Liberty Action Coalition wherein one of the presenters was reported to say that drag shows were being used as a tool to lure children into the LGBTQ-plus lifestyle and groom them “for immoral satanic worship.”
The latter article noted City Councilwoman Michelle Tanner – who vehemently opposed the drag show taking place at the town square – attended the meeting. Patricia Kent, a write-in candidate for Washington County clerk/auditor, was also at the meeting and quoted as the one who said drag shows lead children to Satanism.
“I am appalled about the vile things people are saying about the drag community,” Morgan Barrick, operations director for Pride of Southern Utah, told the council. “We are artists and leaders in this community. Drag is performance art. My spouse doesn’t spend three hours putting on makeup and elaborate costumes and uncomfortable costumes to indoctrinate our children. It’s art.”
As Barrick and others spoke in defense of the drag show and the positive impact they say it has on the LGBTQ-plus community, council members were either accused of being, or asked if they were, homophobic due to their apparent disapproval of the event despite it moving forward.
“We’re not going away,” Barrick said. “You know why we’re not going away? Because drag in this community is a sliver of the visibility that we deserve. We aren’t going anywhere.
“The people who spread hate and satanic panic in clubhouse meetings or from city council offices and make unfounded accusations about people they don’t even know. I’m telling you this kind of hate speech divides and damages our community, and I’d hope you’d all want to unite our community.”
Overall, it was argued that the drag show had been a family-friendly event that took place in the evening when the children’s museum was closed, and any young children who saw the event at the time likely would have been brought there by their parents. It was further argued that it is the produced show that appears on HBO that has that a mature rating and not necessarily the drag show.
‘Treat everyone equally’
The claim that Pride events like the drag show didn’t somehow influence curious children did not sit well with resident Kenzie Thomasson. She had been a part of a presentation at the St. George Tabernacle observing Constitution Day during the same time Pride Week was observed in September.
When that event at the Tabernacle concluded, Thomasson left with her young son and came across a Pride Week festival being held in the Town Square.
“I didn’t know there was an LGBTQ-plus festival taking place and happening outside at the Town Square park, in broad daylight, at the same exact time,” she said. “So you can imagine my surprise as a mother with her very young son (that there’s) a drag show going on, those kinds of things, forcing my hand to have a discussion with my child that I, as a mother, didn’t really want to have at that time.”
While the Pride Festival made her have to go into greater depth about the matter when speaking with her son than she wanted to as his age, Thomasson said her main concern dealt with how people choose to conduct and express themselves in the public sphere amid mixed company.
Thomasson took her son home and returned to the festival to learn more about the event and spoke with the participants. Some were kind and respectful while others were inflammatory, she said. By the end of it, she said she felt that sort of event should not be held in a public park.
“Ultimately, I felt that was not an appropriate thing to be happening at that venue,” she said. “I don’t think that we should have to worry as families with young kids (about) accidentally walking into something that we don’t feel is appropriate, because that is what happened to me.”
Another resident who spoke to the council and went by the first name of Brad said he was for equal rights for all but not special treatment for a select few. He went on the say that the city – through the former city manager – had broken city ordinances governing the approval of a special event permit while also echoing that a mature-themed event shouldn’t be held in a public venue frequented by children.
“When it comes to the LGBTQ community, they deserve equal treatment,” Brad said. “If they want to have a show like that, we should not deny it, but, we are not obligated to, and should not, put anything like that that has a mature rating attached to it in an area where there will be children, or potentially be children.”
The man concluded his words by asking the City Council to follow the city ordinances and to treat everyone fairly.
Council response
Once the last comment was given, Councilman Jimmie Hughes, who oversaw the meeting as the mayor pro tempore, thanked the residents for participating and added that he had never heard any member of the council display the bigotry they were accused of.
“I want you all to know – and I want to be very clear – that I have been in no meetings where any member of this body has expressed any hate whatsoever to any class of people, either intended or otherwise,” Hughes said as a mocking cry of laughter was suddenly heard from the overflow seating in the lobby.
“You can laugh or do whatever you want, but the truth is the truth,” he said. “There are a lot of assumptions being made based on some articles in the press, and I would caution you about assumptions because I’ve never heard anything from these people about hate.”
While emails and text messages obtained by St. George News show a majority members of the City Council did not feel having the drag show in the Town Square was a good idea and questioned how its approval was handled, details surrounding that being the reason for the former city manager’s departure are vague.
Due to the terms of a settlement agreement also obtained by St. George News, details surrounding what specifically led to Lenhard’s resignation remain confidential.
Though she did not comment during the meeting and remained straight-faced throughout much of the public comment period, Tanner issued a statement over social media following the council meeting.
“With most media right now, the only message you will typically get is the most controversial message they can portray, which often involves twisting of facts and large inaccuracies, which lends itself to ratings and high emotions,” she wrote. “I can say without hesitation that NO member of the City Council is ‘anti LGBTQ,’ and whether we agree or disagree on issues, each has good intentions for our community.”
Tanner further wrote that residents interested in the truth need to go to the source for clarity and not rely on second-hand, ratings-driven media reports.
Background
The drag show, which was a part of the HBO Max series “We’re Here,” was held in the St. George Town Square in the evening. However, since it was next to the St. George Children’s Museum and other family-centric amenities like a splash pad, lazy river and carousel – all places frequented by families and children – it was deemed as an inappropriate location by the majority of the City Council.
Despite the council’s objections, Lenhard – whose office and staff were delegated by the council to review and approve event permits – allowed the drag show to take place at the town square, saying in an email to council members that he believed denying it would be seen as discriminatory and open the city up to a costly lawsuit.
According to unnamed sources referenced by the Salt Lake Tribune, it was Lenhard’s handling of the drag show that led to the City Council declaring in a closed meeting that he was going to be fired. This is said to have opened the door to Lenhard suing the city and was the basis of the settlement agreement the council passed in early September and the city manager’s following resignation.
According to the settlement, Lenhard left the city with $625,000.
The third season of “We’re Here,” which features St. George, starts on HBO Max on Sept. 25.
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.